I've always found this version of Superman boring. Gimme 1938-39 Superman anyday. He wasn't naive, and he fought for the common man. He was an outlaw ass kicker taking on corporate abuses, corruption and whatever the hell else pissed him off, with the cops trying to arrest him.

Somewhere along the way, he became a boring boyscout working to maintain the status quo. But that's not how he started. Someone once said that 1938-39 Superman was the most subversive mainstream super hero, even moreso than Batman.....I agree.

Why can't he be an "outlaw ass kicker" and still be the big boy scout?

That to me is why the George Reeves Superman was so ideal. He was tough as hell and had no problem roughing up the bad guys (often appearing annoyed or pissed off while doing it), but yet never lost that sense of underlying nobility and goodness.

I know some of the comics since then have tried to duplicate that, but somehow it just doesn't come across as well as it did with Reeves.